Salt of courage and a flavour of resistance

Salt of courage and a flavour of resistance

Bengaluru: Their story of struggle, defiance and triumph is flavoured by the salt they have historically produced. Maintaining a tradition that goes back 300 years, the natives of Sannikatta, a small village near Gokarna in coastal Karnataka, have seen the ebb and flow of history, just like the river they harvest for life. The Sannikatta folks are a river people, skilled at harnessing the currents of the Aghanashini river estuary to enrich their lives and that of others. The air in the estuary is distinctly savoury, just like the food cooked on the banks of Aghanashini — thanks to a special ingredient that is produced here — the golden brown salt. Sannikatta Salt Fields in Gokarana, in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, is the only natural estuary-based salt production enclave in South India. Natives in Sannikatta have been producing the much sought after natural golden brown salt for more than three centuries. In their traditional handmade process, the salt farming begins in November and continues for nearly four months. The harvest happens during the summer months, between March and May, before the monsoon arrives. With the onset of monsoon in late May or early June, the production cycle comes